► Increasing pressure and number of passes through the homogenizer up to 3 times led to a decrease on the droplet size. ► Emulsions homogenized at higher pressure showed bimodal distribution, ...indicating droplets coalescence. ► Higher shear and temperature during homogenization led to the formation of protein aggregates of high molecular mass. ► An increase in the formation of primary oxidation products was observed at higher homogenization pressure. ► Formation of primary oxidation products could be explained by the increase in temperature and decrease on the droplet size.
The effect of high-pressure homogenization (20–100MPa) and the number of homogenization cycles (1–7) on the stability of flaxseed oil - whey protein isolate emulsions was evaluated. All the emulsions were stable to creaming for at least 9d of storage. An increase in homogenization pressure from 20 to 80MPa and number of passes through the homogenizer up to 3, decreased the mean droplet size of the O/W emulsions despite the higher polydispersity. Emulsions homogenized at lower pressures (20MPa) showed a monomodal distribution of the particles, whereas, an increase in pressure to 80MPa led to a bimodal distribution, indicating droplets coalescence. High-pressure homogenization (80MPa) and an increase in the number of homogenization cycles, led to the formation of high molecular weight aggregates (>200kDa), which favored an increase in viscosity of the emulsions. The increase in homogenization pressure also increased the formation of primary oxidation products, which could be explained by the increase in temperature and in the surface area of the droplets.
Cross-sector partnerships (XSPs) are an important part of today's organizational landscape and a favored strategy for addressing complex social problems. However, a discrepancy exists between the ...popularity and prevalence of XSPs and evidence of their ability to produce value with respect to the problems they address. We therefore offer a framework for increasing and assessing XSP value based on an alternative conception of organizational constitution rooted in communication theory. Our central argument is that the overall value of XSPs is not merely in connecting interested parties but, rather, in their ability to act—to substantially influence the people and issues within their problem domain. This ability, we argue, comes from the constitution of organizational forms that are distinct from their members and that display collective agency—the capacity to influence a host of relevant outcomes beyond what individual organizations could do on their own. Our primary contributions are developing a framework for understanding XSP constitution in terms of communication processes and explaining how XSP value can be increased and assessed through communication practices.
Seeing oceans, continents, quasi-static weather, and other surface features on exoplanets may allow for detecting and characterizing life outside the solar system. The Proxima b exoplanet resides ...within the stellar habitable zone, possibly allowing for liquid water on its surface, as on Earth. However, even the largest planned telescopes will not be able to resolve its surface features directly. Here we demonstrate an inversion technique to indirectly image exoplanet surfaces using observed unresolved reflected light variations over the course of the exoplanet's orbital and axial rotation: ExoPlanet Surface Imaging (EPSI). We show that the reflected light curve contains enough information to detect both longitudinal and latitudinal structures and to map exoplanet surface features. We demonstrate this using examples of solar system planets and moons, as well as simulated planets with Earth-like life and artificial structures. We also describe how it is possible to infer the planet and orbit geometry from light curves. Then, we show how albedo maps of Proxima b can be successfully reconstructed for tidally locked, resonance, and unlocked axial and orbital rotation. Such albedo maps obtained in different wavelength passbands can provide "photographic" views of distant exoplanets. We estimate the signal-to-noise ratio necessary for successful inversions and analyze telescope and detector requirements necessary for the first surface image reconstructions of Proxima b and other nearby exoplanets using EPSI. This is a significant challenge, but the success of such measurements depends heavily on large-aperture diffraction-limited telescope performance-a feat that may be achieved on the ground before it is in space.
The loading of a granular material induces anisotropies of the particle arrangement (fabric) and of the material’s strength, incremental stiffness, and permeability. Thirteen measures of fabric ...anisotropy are developed, which are arranged in four categories: as preferred orientations of the particle bodies, the particle surfaces, the contact normals, and the void space. Anisotropy of the voids is described through image analysis and with Minkowski tensors. The thirteen measures of anisotropy change during loading, as determined with three-dimensional discrete element simulations of biaxial plane strain compression with constant mean stress. Assemblies with four different particle shapes were simulated. The measures of contact orientation are the most responsive to loading, and they change greatly at small strains, whereas the other measures lag the loading process and continue to change beyond the state of peak stress and even after the deviatoric stress has nearly reached a steady state. The paper implements a methodology for characterizing the incremental stiffness of a granular assembly during biaxial loading, with orthotropic loading increments that preserve the principal axes of the fabric and stiffness tensors. The linear part of the hypoplastic tangential stiffness is monitored with oedometric loading increments. This stiffness increases in the direction of the initial compressive loading but decreases in the direction of extension. Anisotropy of this stiffness is closely correlated with a particular measure of the contact fabric. Permeabilities are measured in three directions with lattice Boltzmann methods at various stages of loading and for assemblies with four particle shapes. Effective permeability is negatively correlated with the directional mean free path and is positively correlated with pore width, indicating that the anisotropy of effective permeability induced by loading is produced by changes in the directional hydraulic radius.
Fluorescent protein tags are fundamental tools used to visualize gene products and analyze their dynamics in vivo. Recent advances in genome editing have expedited the precise insertion of ...fluorescent protein tags into the genomes of diverse organisms. These advances expand the potential of in vivo imaging experiments and facilitate experimentation with new, bright, photostable fluorescent proteins. Most quantitative comparisons of the brightness and photostability of different fluorescent proteins have been made in vitro, removed from biological variables that govern their performance in cells or organisms. To address the gap, we quantitatively assessed fluorescent protein properties in vivo in an animal model system. We generated transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans strains expressing green, yellow, or red fluorescent proteins in embryos and imaged embryos expressing different fluorescent proteins under the same conditions for direct comparison. We found that mNeonGreen was not as bright in vivo as predicted based on in vitro data but is a better tag than GFP for specific kinds of experiments, and we report on optimal red fluorescent proteins. These results identify ideal fluorescent proteins for imaging in vivo in C. elegans embryos and suggest good candidate fluorescent proteins to test in other animal model systems for in vivo imaging experiments.
The UCSC Genome Browser Database (GBD, http://genome.ucsc.edu) is a publicly available collection of genome assembly sequence data and integrated annotations for a large number of organisms, ...including extensive comparative-genomic resources. In the past year, 13 new genome assemblies have been added, including two important primate species, orangutan and marmoset, bringing the total to 46 assemblies for 24 different vertebrates and 39 assemblies for 22 different invertebrate animals. The GBD datasets may be viewed graphically with the UCSC Genome Browser, which uses a coordinate-based display system allowing users to juxtapose a wide variety of data. These data include all mRNAs from GenBank mapped to all organisms, RefSeq alignments, gene predictions, regulatory elements, gene expression data, repeats, SNPs and other variation data, as well as pairwise and multiple-genome alignments. A variety of other bioinformatics tools are also provided, including BLAT, the Table Browser, the Gene Sorter, the Proteome Browser, VisiGene and Genome Graphs.
Context.
The Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA (MASCARA) and bRing are both photometric ground-based instruments with multiple stations that rely on interline charge-coupled devices with wide-field lenses to ...monitor bright stars in the local sky for variability. MASCARA has already discovered several planets in the northern sky, which are among the brightest known transiting hot Jupiter systems.
Aims.
In this paper, we aim to characterize a transiting planetary candidate in the southern skies found in the combined MASCARA and bRing data sets of HD 85628, an A7V star of
V
= 8.2 mag at a distance 172 pc, to establish its planetary nature.
Methods.
The candidate was originally detected in data obtained jointly with the MASCARA and bRing instruments using a Box Least-Square search for transit events. Further photometry was taken by the 0.7 m Chilean-Hungarian Automated Telescope (CHAT), and radial velocity measurements with the Fiber Dual Echelle Optical Spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory 1.0 m Telescope. High-resolution spectra during a transit were taken with the CTIO high-resolution spectrometer (CHIRON) on the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System 1.5 m telescope to target the Doppler shadow of the candidate.
Results.
We confirm the existence of a hot Jupiter transiting the bright A7V star HD 85628, which we co-designate as MASCARA-4b and bRing-1b. It is in an orbit of 2.824 days, with an estimated planet radius of 1.53
−0.04
+0.07
R
Jup
and an estimated planet mass of 3.1 ± 0.9
M
Jup
, putting it well within the planetary regime. The CHAT observations show a partial transit, reducing the probability that the transit was around a faint background star. The CHIRON observations show a clear Doppler shadow, implying that the transiting object is in a retrograde orbit with |
λ
| =244.9
−3.6
+2.7
°. The planet orbits at a distance of 0.047 ± 0.004 AU from the star and has a zero-albedo equilibrium temperature of 2100 ± 100 K. In addition, we find that HD 85628 has a previously unreported stellar companion star in the
Gaia
DR2 data demonstrating common proper motion and parallax at 4.3′′ separation (projected separation ~740 AU), and with absolute magnitude consistent with being a K/M dwarf.
Conclusions.
MASCARA-4 b/bRing-1 b is the brightest transiting hot Jupiter known to date in a retrograde orbit. It further confirms that planets in near-polar and retrograde orbits are more common around early-type stars. Due to its high apparent brightness and short orbital period, the system is particularly well suited for further atmospheric characterization.
The University of California, Santa Cruz, Genome Browser Database (GBD) provides integrated sequence and annotation data for a large collection of vertebrate and model organism genomes. Seventeen new ...assemblies have been added to the database in the past year, for a total coverage of 19 vertebrate and 21 invertebrate species as of September 2007. For each assembly, the GBD contains a collection of annotation data aligned to the genomic sequence. Highlights of this year's additions include a 28-species human-based vertebrate conservation annotation, an enhanced UCSC Genes set, and more human variation, MGC, and ENCODE data. The database is optimized for fast interactive performance with a set of web-based tools that may be used to view, manipulate, filter and download the annotation data. New toolset features include the Genome Graphs tool for displaying genome-wide data sets, session saving and sharing, better custom track management, expanded Genome Browser configuration options and a Genome Browser wiki site. The downloadable GBD data, the companion Genome Browser toolset and links to documentation and related information can be found at: http://genome.ucsc.edu/.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a complex heterogeneous disease for which our pathophysiological understanding is still limited and specific prevention and treatment ...strategies are lacking. HFpEF is characterised by diastolic dysfunction and cardiac remodelling (fibrosis, inflammation, and hypertrophy). Recently, microvascular dysfunction and chronic low-grade inflammation have been proposed to participate in HFpEF development. Furthermore, several recent studies demonstrated the occurrence of generalized lymphatic dysfunction in experimental models of risk factors for HFpEF, including obesity, hypercholesterolaemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), hypertension, and aging. Here, we review the evidence for a combined role of coronary (micro)vascular dysfunction and lymphatic vessel alterations in mediating key pathological steps in HFpEF, including reduced cardiac perfusion, chronic low-grade inflammation, and myocardial oedema, and their impact on cardiac metabolic alterations (oxygen and nutrient supply/demand imbalance), fibrosis, and cardiomyocyte stiffness. We focus primarily on HFpEF caused by metabolic risk factors, such as obesity, T2DM, hypertension, and aging.
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